Motoko Akiba

• Ph.D.
• Professor at Florida State University

Teacher accountability reforms implemented around the globe have heightened a sense that teachers are losing the support of policymakers and the general public. To examine the global pattern in teachers’ perception of occupational value and identify possible outcomes and predictors, we analyzed the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (T...

The Race to the Top (RTTT) program incentivized states to use innovation for systemwide improvement of student outcomes, but little is known about how RTTT-funded innovation was sustained after the RTTT program ended. This mixed-methods study examined state and district approaches to sustaining an international innovation called lesson study, a tea...

Lesson study was introduced to school districts in Florida in the United States as part of the federal government’s Race to the Top Program in 2010 to scale improvement in instruction and student learning. However, little is known about what district policy and leadership characteristics are associated with the level of lesson study implementation....

Teacher learning communities have been promoted as a promising approach to promote systemwide improvement of teaching and student learning. However, our knowledge about what design features of collaborative learning processes in teacher groups support teacher learning is still limited. Based on a teacher survey of lesson study, this study found tha...

This study explores the case of two teacher leaders who initiated and maintained a collaborative professional learning practice called lesson study. Applying Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) temporal, multidimensional framework of agency, we investigate how teacher leaders who place a high value on teacher-driven, professional learning exercise agency...

This study compares the unique cases of two groups of U.S. teachers independently engaged in a collaborative professional learning practice “borrowed” from Japan. We explore how agency is developed and enacted within each group to contribute to our understanding of teachers’ agency in a globalized reform environment. Our study demonstrates that eve...

We have observed a global focus on improving teacher quality through reforming teacher education, certification, recruitment, and evaluation during the past two decades. Previous single country studies have documented the focus, design, and implementation of teacher reforms in various national contexts, yet few studies systematically analyzed what...

In this presentation, we looked at answering two questions: (1) How did professional development (PD) facilitators contribute substantively to teachers’ talk about students’ mathematical thinking during lesson study (LS)? (2) What is the relationship between PD facilitators’ contributions to teachers’ talk and their general dispositions toward LS a...

This case study focuses on the perspectives of teacher leaders to document and explore how teachers in Coast County, Florida, have sustained their practice of lesson study in the absence of an official mandate to do so and stable administrative support. While a growing body of research supports the effectiveness of collaborative professional develo...

In summer 2013, 2014, and 2015, professional development coordinators of all 68 districts in Florida were invited to participate in a longitudinal online survey, Lesson Study District Survey. This report summarizes the findings from this longitudinal survey of district lesson study policy and practice.

The authors examined the effects of six types of teacher professional learning activities on student achievement growth over 4 years using statewide longitudinal survey data collected from 467 middle school mathematics teachers in 91 schools merged with 11,192 middle school students' mathematics scores in a standardized assessment in Missouri. The...

Lesson study is a process of instructional improvement in which a group of teachers collaborate to set a goal, study, observe, and discuss teaching and student learning (Lewis & Hurd, 2011). Lesson study originates in Japan and has been practiced by Japanese teachers for over a century (Fernandez & Yoshida, 2004; Makinae, 2010).

The book examines how the understanding of the global and the local has changed in response to ongoing reconfigurations between the state and society. It also emphasizes the importance of schooling as an institution both within and across national contexts, a holistic approach that helps us move beyond a conglomeration of isolated local events to p...

Global focus on reforming teachers has resulted in the inclusion of multiple survey questions about teachers' professional learning activities in large-scale international studies. A cross-national analysis of these survey data will likely enhance our understanding and inform the future direction regarding teacher professional development policy an...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of teacher incentive pay programs used by midsize to large school districts in Missouri. Design/methodology/approach – This study primarily used the Teacher Compensation Programs (TCP) survey data. The TCP survey was developed by the authors to understand the nature and characte...

The state of Florida has taken an unprecedented approach to teacher professional development in its Race to the Top (RTTT) Program application by proposing to promote an international innovation that originates in Japan, “lesson study,” as a statewide teacher professional development model. Since winning the US$700 million RTTT funding in 2010, the...

A statewide longitudinal survey of 923 middle school mathematics teachers in Missouri was conducted from 2009 to 2011 to examine the amount of organizational resources for professional development that teachers received and the relationship between organizational resources and teachers’ participation in high-quality professional development. This s...

Many countries around the world are struggling with how to equalize students' access to qualified teachers. How does the major gap in students' access to qualified teachers affect the achievement gap between students? To examine whether the level of achievement gap in a country is driven by the educational system that allows unequal distributions o...

Despite the importance of recruiting highly qualified individuals into the science teaching profession, little is known about the effectiveness of particular recruitment strategies. Over 3 years, 34 college science majors and undecided students were recruited into paid internships in informal science settings to consider secondary science teaching...

Using statewide longitudinal teacher survey data collected in 2009 and 2010, this study examined the characteristics of teacher evaluation used to determine performance-related pay (PRP), and the association between PRP and improvement in the practice of constructivist instruction. The study found that 10.9% of middle school mathematics teachers in...

These are headlines of news articles in a national newspaper in a country outside of the United States. The media coverage of teacher scandals increased since 2001, reaching the highest 89 cases in 2004. The teachers in this country, the readers would conclude, have serious problems. They would wonder what is wrong with these teachers and speculate...

Purpose - The study examined: (1) the implementation of the 2009 Teacher License Renewal Policy (TLRP) by a large national university; (2) teachers' responses to the TLRP, which requires teachers to take university courses to renew their licenses, and (3) completion rates for license renewal in 2011 and 2012. Methodology - This mixed-method study i...

From the implementations and outcomes of teacher reforms examined in these 10 countries with diverse historical, political, and social contexts, three themes emerged that deserve attention and elaboration. These themes are: (1) involvement of and coordination among key stakeholders in decision-making and implementation processes, (2) clarity and co...

Based on a statewide survey of professional learning activities among 577 middle school mathematics teachers in Missouri, this study examined two questions: 1) What professional learning activities do middle school math teachers participate in and how much time do they spend in these activities?, and 2) How are teacher qualifications and contextual...

This study examined the characteristics of performance-related pay (PRP) for teachers in the United States. From 1999 to 2007, the percentage of districts offering PRP and the percentage of teachers receiving PRP increased significantly. Large and ethnically diverse districts in urban areas with less union influence were more likely to offer PRP. A...

Background/Context Educating pre-service teachers to develop multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills for teaching diverse students is a major responsibility of teacher education program coordinators and teacher educators. Numerous studies have discussed and explored the characteristics of teacher preparation that improve pre-service teachers...

On the basis of a secondary analysis of survey data collected from 1,872 secondary school principals in the 2005–2006 School Survey on Crime and Safety, we examined the frequency of and reasons for severe disciplinary actions and the relationship between school characteristics and severe disciplinary actions. We found that severe disciplinary actio...

State departments of education can play an important role in preparing teachers for effectively teaching diverse learners in our schools through state policies and standards on teacher certification and teacher education program accreditation. We conducted a content analysis of state standards on teacher certification and program accreditation in t...

This mixed-method evaluation study examines relationships between the nature and characteristics of teachers’ prior experiences and teachers’ practice of standards-based instruction as a measure of instructional quality among alternatively certified mathematics and science teachers. The study found that career length, number of prior careers, and c...

Teacher beliefs can greatly influence the school experiences of young adolescents. In this study, the authors analyze a bi-national survey about teacher beliefs surrounding puberty, adolescence and academic items. The authors find significant differences between Japanese and US teachers of young adolescents with regard to the onset and duration of...

Background/Context Ensuring a safe learning environment for every student at school is a major responsibility of educators, school administrators, and policy makers in our society. Students’ fear associated with school violence affects their school attendance, learning motivation, and academic achievement. Although predictors of adults’ fear of cri...

While schools play a major role in promoting parental involvement in schooling in many countries, few comparative studies examined the level of school expectation for parental involvement and its effect on student achievement. Using the TIMSS 1999 dataset, this study examined the level of school expectation for various types of parental involvement...

Abstract Lesson study is a widespread,form of professional development,in Japan that has recently emerged,in a number,of U.S. sites. This paper describes a collaboration,between,researchers and practitioners at one U.S. lesson study site. The collaboration,had simultaneous,goals of building lesson study in one school district; documenting the imple...

Ensuring a safe learning environment for students is a major responsibility of educators and policymakers around the world. Based on the secondary analyses of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data collected from 33 countries in 1999, the study found that 8th graders who witnessed their friends' violence victimizatio...

Using the NAEP nationally-representative data collected from eighth-graders, we investigated the relative exposure of American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) students to mathematics teachers who are knowledgeable about standards, participate in standards-based professional development, and practice standards-based instruction; American Indian/Alaska N...

The 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study data from 46 countries showed that, although the national level of teacher quality in the United States was similar to the international average, the opportunity gap in students' access to qualified teachers between students of high and low socioeconomic status (SES) was among the large...

Whilst school violence is a major public concern and a focus of educational reforms both in the USA and South Korea, few studies have comparatively examined the rates of school violence and school factors associated with them. Analysing nationally‐representative data from eighth graders, their mathematics teachers and principals in 150 South Korean...

Schools and districts are adopting out-of-school-time (OST) programs such as after-school programs and summer schools to supplement the education of low-achieving students. However, research has painted a mixed picture of their effectiveness. To clarify OST impacts, this synthesis examined research on OST programs for assisting at-risk students in...

This paper examines school liability for school violence-related student injury in South Korea and the US. The study found that the US courts considered only violence-related behaviors of the perpetrator when judging whether violence can be foreseen; thus drug abuse or verbal abuse by the perpetrator were not considered as a part of his/her violent...

While school bullying in Japan, Ijime, has been a topic of major public concern since the 1980s, few qualitative studies have been conducted to examine its nature and correlates. Through a case study of 30 ninth graders in a Japanese middle school, the study found that Ijime has complex group dynamics in its onset and process. The analysis of stude...

While many studies have reported the predictors of teacher attrition, we know little about what predicts the attrition of school leaders. Using the Colorado state data on elementary school principals’ and assistant principals’ career paths from 1999 to 2001 and school achievement-level data, we addressed two research questions: 1) How do the age-sp...

School violence is a problem in many nations, and rates of school violence in the United States are not among the highest in the world. The authors utilize a section of the TIMSS survey data to (a) explore the amount of school violence among the 37 nations in the study; (b) ascertain whether the traditional national-level predictors of crimes and d...

Anderson-Levitt raises several useful issues about our recent article on global versus national cultures, institutionalization, and comparative analysis of teaching in three nations.--In this response, we clarify some of our arguments and illustrate some of our differences in emphasis from Anderson-Levitt.

With the growing attention to curricular standardization, especially in math and science, and equitable conditions that promote learning for all students, most research has continued to focus on instructional practice alone. Accountability issues (teacher quality defined as certification) and equity (access to qualified teachers) have been at the f...

The growth of structured, outside-school activities for improving students' mathematics achievement is an enduring feature of modern schooling with major policy implications. These "shadow education" activities mimic, or shadow, formal schooling processes and requirements. Using extensive cross-national data from the Third International Mathematics...

A host of reports on The Third International Math-Science Study have now been published, and the mass of raw survey and achievement data is now available to the public. However, detailed secondary analysis has been slow to emerge. Nonetheless, educational policy initiatives have appeared in the interim. Using the example of middle-school math refor...

Koreans constitute one of the largest minority groups in Japan. Currently, both North Korean and South Korean schools are suffering from declining enrollments. Part of the reason for this enrollment decline lies in the fact that the extreme academic competition for further education under the standardized examination system makes it difficult for K...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2001. Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-224). Photocopy.